350 ANNUAL REPOET SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1&1&. 
idea of grace and symmetry of form and of perfect adaptation to the 
environment. The song of birds — the "thousand blended notes," 
as Wordsworth described it — has inspired the poets of all ages and 
countries, those of our own country being not the least. Some of the 
stateliest lines in English poetry refer to birds, as readers of Shake- 
speare, ShellejT^, Scott, Burns, Gray, Longfellow, and Tennyson will 
recall. The study of bird life has ever exercised an ennobling in- 
fluence, in consequence of which in certain countries efforts have been 
made to make it a compulsory provision of the education code to 
arrange for the study of birds in the public schools, and in a modified 
form to the original proposition one of the States of North America 
has enacted a law requiring every teacher in the public schools " to 
give oral instruction at least once a month * * * relative to the 
preservation of song birds, fish, and game," Legislation of this kind 
undoubtedly marks the commencement of a phase in the public mind 
that is likely to assume greater importance in the near future. As 
a recent writer states : 
The systematic study of birds develops botli the observational faculties aud 
the analytical qualities of the mind. The study of the living bird afield is 
rejuvenating to both mind and body. The outdoor use of eye, ear, and limb 
necessitated by field work tends to fit both the body and mind of the student 
for the practical work of life, for it develops both members and faculties. It 
brings one into contact with nature — out into the simlight, where balmy airs 
stir tlie whispering pines or fresh breezes ripple the blue water. 
Very similar ideas are expressed by Forbush, who writes : 
There is no purer joy in life than that which may come to all who, rising in 
the dusk of early morning, welcome the approach of day with all its bird 
voices. The nature lover who listens to the song of the wood thrush at dawn — 
an anthem of calm, serene, spiritual joy sounding througli the dim M^oods — 
hears it with feelings akin to those of the devotee whose being is thrilled by 
the grand and sacred music of the sanctiiavy. And he who, in the .still forest 
at evening, barkens to the exquisite notes of the hermit — that voice of nature, 
expressing in sweet cadences her xjathos and her ineffable mystery — experiences 
amid the falling shades of night emotions which must humble, chasten, and 
purify even the most upright and virtuous of men. 
On the utility of birds we might dwell at great length and then 
be far from exhausting the subject. Few of us have formed any 
conception of the influence they exercise upon our food supply and 
many products of industry. Here we must strictly confine our re- 
marks to their value as the guardians of our crops, our orchards, and 
our forests. How little do we realize what a potent factor for good 
wild birds are in this connection, what the sum total of their ceaseless 
activities means, and how intimately associated it is with the security 
of our food supply. Were it not for the benefits conferred by wild 
birds it would be impossible to successfully cultivate the majority of 
our crops, This statement may seem an extravagant one, but an 
